Realizing the combination of high strength and good ductility of Cu matrix composites with CrCoNi reinforcement particles and microlaminated structure

Abstract In this work, the copper (Cu) matrix composites reinforced by medium entropy alloy (MEA) CrCoNi particles with microlaminated structure were successfully fabricated using vacuum filtration, spark plasma sintering (SPS) and subsequent hot rolling. The effects of the content of MEA CrCoNi particles on the mechanical properties were systemically investigated, and the relevant strengthening and toughening mechanism were discussed. It is found that the fabricated composites present much higher strength than their counterpart of pure Cu. Moreover, the combination of high strength (326±3.9 MPa) and good ductility (20.9±2.3%) with using 10 vol% CrCoNi particles as reinforcement can be achieved, which can be attributed to the combined effects of uniform dispersion of CrCoNi particles, well bonded interface bonding, the microlaminated structure. It is determined that the load transfer strengthening is the dominant strengthening mechanism in present fabricated composites. This work sheds light on fabricating Cu matrix composites with high mechanical properties by employing novel reinforcement and microstructure design.